I am nothing! If you could know the dream of what I would like to be, you would realize how little I have accomplished.

If I don't practise for one day, I know it; if I don't practise for two days, the critics knows it; if I don't practise for three days, the audience knows it.

I am inclined to believe that some music, like certain poetry, finds its appeal and way to all.

True originality has its foundations in the soul, not in the mind, and when there is an effort to create something different it is usually a failure. Beethoven or Schumann or Chopin did not try to be original. They were original.

Art must be a slow and normal evolution.

The mere fact of knowing that a great audience waits on your labor is enough to shake all your nerves to pieces.

I cannot imagine a genuinely happy home without music in it.